§ 17-157 Payment to department; effect.

The receipt of the department for any sum so paid, in all suits and proceedings, and for every purpose, shall be as effectual in favor of any person holding the same as actual payment of the amount thereof to the proper landlord, lessor, owner, or other person or persons who would, except for the provisions of section 17-155 of this title, and of such demand, have been entitled to receive the sum so paid. No tenant or occupant of any lot, building or premises, shall be dispossessed or disturbed, nor shall any lease or contract, or rights, be forfeited or impaired, nor any forfeiture or liability be incurred by reason of any omission to pay to any landlord, owner, lessor, contractor, party, or other person, the sum so paid to the department, or any part thereof.

§ 17-158 Department to retain moneys until twelve days after notice.

The department shall retain money so paid until twelve days after it shall be made to appear to it or some proper officer thereof, by satisfactory affidavit, that the party or parties, or his, her or their agent for the collection of any such rent or compensation, who, but for the provisions hereof would have been entitled to receive the same, has had written notice of such payment being made; and if at the end of such twelve days such party or parties, so notified, have not instituted suit to recover such money, then it shall, by the department be paid to the commissioner of finance.

§ 17-159 Infected and uninhabitable houses; vacation orders.

Whenever it shall be certified to the department by an officer or inspector of the department that any building or any part thereof in the city is infected with communicable disease, or by reason of want of repair has become dangerous to life or is unfit for human habitation because of defects in drainage, plumbing, ventilation, or the construction of the same, or because of the existence of a nuisance on the premises which is likely to cause sickness among its occupants, the department may issue an order requiring all persons therein to vacate such building or part thereof for the reasons to be stated therein. The department shall cause such order to be affixed conspicuously in such building or part thereof and to be personally served on the owner, lessee, agent, occupant, or any person having the charge or care thereof. If the owner, lessee or agent can not be found in the city or does not reside therein, or evades or resists service, then such order may be served by depositing a copy thereof in the post-office in the city, properly enclosed and addressed to such owner, lessee or agent, at his or her last known place of business and residence, and prepaying the postage thereon; such building or part thereof within ten days after such order shall have been so posted and mailed, or within such shorter time, not less than twenty-four hours, as in such order may be specified, shall be vacated, but the department whenever it shall become satisfied that the danger from such building or part thereof has ceased to exist, or that such building has been repaired so as to be habitable, may revoke such order.

§ 17-160 Proceedings for condemnation.

Whenever any building or part thereof in the city, in the opinion of the department, by reason of:

   1.   Age, or

   2.   Defects in drainage, plumbing or ventilation, or

   3.   Infection with communicable disease, or

   4.   The existence of a nuisance on the premises, which is likely to cause sickness among its occupants, or among the occupants of other property in such city, or

   5.   Its stopping ventilation in other buildings, or otherwise making or conducing to make them unfit for human habitation, or dangerous or injurious to health, or

   6.   Its preventing proper measures from being taken for remedying any nuisance injurious to health, or

   7.   Other sanitary evils in respect of such other buildings, is so unfit for human habitation that the evils in, or caused by such building, can not be remedied by repairs or otherwise except by the destruction of such building or a portion thereof, the department having first made an order to vacate such building, if it deem such course just and proper, may condemn the same and order it removed. The department may institute proceedings in the supreme court in the city for the condemnation of such building, provided, however, that the owner or owners of such building may demand that it be surveyed in the manner provided for in case of unsafe buildings.

§ 17-161 Institution of proceedings.

Such proceeding shall be instituted through a petition addressed to such court containing a brief statement of the reasons therefor, and shall not be required to contain further allegations of facts than those which have actuated the department in this proceeding, which shall then be carried on in the manner prescribed for a capital project proceeding by subchapter one of chapter three of title five of the code. The owner of such building or any person interested therein may in his or her answer dispute the necessity of the destruction of such building or part thereof, as the case may be. In such case, the court shall not take steps to ascertain the value of the property unless proof is made of the necessity of such destruction.

§ 17-162 Admissible evidence.

In such proceeding, evidence shall be receivable by the court without a jury to prove:

   1.   That the rental of the building was enhanced by reason of the same being used for illegal purposes, or being so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates; or

   2.   That the building is in a state of defective sanitation, or is not in reasonably good repair; or

   3.   That the building is unfit, and not reasonably capable of being made fit, for human habitation.

§ 17-163 Amount of compensation.

If the court is satisfied by such evidence, then the compensation:

   1.   Shall in the first case, so far as it is based on rental, be on the rental of the building, as distinct from the ground rent, which would have been obtainable if the building was occupied for legal purposes, and only by the number of persons whom the building, under all circumstances of the case, was fitted to accommodate without such overcrowding as is dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates; and

   2.   Shall in the second case be the amount estimated as the value of the building if it had been put into a sanitary condition, or into reasonably good repair, after deducting the estimated expense of putting it into such condition or repair; and

   3.   Shall in the third case be the value of the materials of the building.

§ 17-164 Inspection reports; publication.

The department may make and publish a report of the sanitary condition and the result of the inspection of any place, matter or thing in the city, so far as, in the opinion of the department, such publication may be useful.

§ 17-165 Inspection and removal of articles.

   a.   An officer or employee of the department shall visit and inspect all stores and places within the city which are suspected of containing putrid or unsound provisions or other articles unfit for human consumption or use or likely to communicate disease to the inhabitants, and make and sign a report in writing stating the stores, places and articles so inspected and the nature, state and situation thereof and such officer's or employee's opinion in relation thereto. Such report shall be filed in an office of the department.

   b.   The department may by order direct the removal, to a place to be designated by it, of all things within the city which, in its opinion are unfit for human consumption or use or which shall be infected in any manner likely to communicate disease to the inhabitants.

   c.   Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall constitute a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not exceeding two hundred fifty dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.